KL Report
SRINAGAR
The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways which is responsible for the development and maintenance of National Highways has taken direct control of the central projects meant for JK highways, which was earlier being handled by JK government and other nodal agencies.
Kashmir News Service (KNS) has learnt from sources that the ministry which principally followed the agency system to develop and maintain the National Highways in Jammu and Kashmir has bypassed all the agencies acting as nodal agencies of the Central Government.
Sources said that earlier the State Government, the Border Road Organization and National Highways Authority of India, an autonomous organization under the Ministry, acted as agencies of the Central Government but now the ministry has decided that it will directly control implementation of the projects from New Delhi.
Sources said that the Ministry in its first move has taken the control of Zoji-La Project which was earlier under the control of the Border Road Organization (BRO). Further the ministry has set a separate cell in the office and is directly accepting the bids, sources said.
A senior bureaucrat in the state government wishing confirmed the development.
“The step is first of its kind taken by the government of India. Maintenance of highway and other central sponsored roads was maintained by the State Government’s PWD department, BRO, and National Highways Authority of India but for the first time the government of India has changed the system with the reason best to known to them,” he said.
Meanwhile, one of the officials in the office of union transport ministry said that the step has been taken to bring in transparency and accountability in the system.
“We believe that this move will help us verify progress of actual work on ground,” he said.
